So this is probably riddled with mistakes and inconsistencies and gaping potholes... I forgot what else I was going to say. Nevermind. Here's chapter 3!
"It should be dead center in the middle of this field," Sam announced, consulting Bobby's GPS for the millionth time that hour, "but since the GPS is only accurate to within about 50 feet, we might have to loo-"
Sam was interrupted by the car door opening as his brother began to gear up.
The pair were met with an endless expanse of tall grass and wheat, save for a single, towering oak, visible for (what seemed like) miles. Cicadas hummed and screeched to their content, particles living and otherwise sped and swam around every which way. The horizon was already a fluorescent stripe of pink, the sun bleeding its color across the sky in that classic summer sunset sort of way.
Daylight was dwindling. They needed to work quickly.
The brothers paused for breath, "Yeah, something tells me we won't have to look very far" Dean immediately set out into the thick summer afternoon air and at an almost urgent pace, armed to the teeth, brother in tow.
The wheat was thick, just around waist high. The pair waded through the unkempt field, about twenty feet apart, searching through the grass. All things considered, this grassy terrain was nothing compared to the struggle through the underbrush and the thicket of the woods.
They had walked for about a mile, however looks were deceiving. All the while they slowly approached the massive, standalone tree that acted like the centerpiece of the scenery, propped like the true link between the skies and the turf. It was sort of a mirage; it never seemed to get any closer even after such a distance.
Finally, they had reached their predetermined destination, which was unsurprisingly centered exactly over the tree. "This thing's huge" Dean admired, briefly skimming rough worn hands over the grit of the bark. It had to be at least 100 years old, Dean thought. I mean seriously, he couldn't even begin to wrap his arms around its trunk. Meanwhile, his brother searched and circled the area.
"Dean… I think you need to… just get over here right now" said Sam breathlessly after a moment.
Dean took a break from tree hugging to meet up with his brother, and stopped in his tracks when he saw the small streaks of blood that stained the trampled brush which Sam was staring at.
"Shit..." Dean muttered, and with that was gone a split second later down the trail.
"Wait, Dean!" Sam hurried to catch up as he tailed his brother.
It was less of a trail than a rough path, consisting of partially matted down grass and splotches (and sometimes small puddles) of dark drying blood. Dean remained silent, stoic; nevertheless, Sam wasn't fooled. His brother's alarm was palpable, his heartbeat almost audible over the screaming insects. It was barely any time at all before the trail came to a stop at a clearing next to a river.
A couple seconds passed, and despair began to settle on the pair. The trail simply ended there, right up to the abrupt waterfront. There was some tall brush at the water's edge, and while the current was moving at a lazy pace it appeared to be strong, perhaps even enough to take a body. Apart from the grass and the fifteen or so feet of waterfront that they could see before the stream rounded the corner from both ends, there weren't many options for the body of a full-grown man to disappear into. They moved their search a little further downstream, and it was then Dean found exactly what he hoped he wouldn't find.
A small, barely visible stripe of tan trench coat at the edge of the water set the eldest Winchester in motion. Launching into action, Dean was at the water's edge in a heartbeat, Sam close behind.
Submerged up to his midsection, Castiel had been all but completely concealed by the reeds, his back facing the siblings in an awkward heap on the ground. When they found him, still a bit wet, He lay partially curled in on himself, face and chest angled towards the ground in a pool of something Dean really doesn't even want to consider right now, lower half darkened as his extremities reached the streambed.
It appeared he had been held in place by an eddy or a back stream, and had managed to keep his upper half above water on the shoreline. But he obviously hadn't had anything more left in him, judging from the fact that he now lay beached and unconscious on the stream bank.
Dean walked into the steadily flowing river, in up to his thighs, in order to get over to the angel.
"Oh shit… Cas…" he fumbled, reaching to touch his shoulder. "Cas man, you alive there?" One small shake and he didn't move. He checked for a pulse, and after a terribly long moment, he was answered with a weak, fluttering beat.
"He's got a pulse…" that was hope enough.
Cas's face was white even in the dwindling light, his bluish lips in such stark contrast to his hue less face and the dark crimson soaking underneath his body that Dean's stomach flipped. Looking at his hand where he had rested it near Cas's underside, Dean could see that it came back dark red.
"Sam, what…" he trailed off, momentarily dazed.
Luckily, it was Sam that snapped back to his senses. He had also waded into the water behind his brother.
"Dean, we need to get him help , or he's going to bleed out, and soon" Sam stripped off his flannel t-shirt and quickly set to work trying to staunch whatever wound loosed so much blood from their fallen friend's vessel. After a second or two Dean followed suit, stripping off his own outer layer and holding it to Cas's stomach, firmly securing the makeshift bandage for the risky trip back.
They weren't able to tell the full extent of his wounds, but they did know that it was dead serious. Carefully, Dean hooked his arms under Cas's armpits and pulled him the rest of the way out of the water, then hoisted him up to cradle him to his chest with a hand under his knees and behind his back. Dean thought he could tell Cas was significantly less heavy than he had seemed before, but then immediately buried the thought.
As Dean hefted Cas's dead weight back in the direction of the Impala, Sam ran to start the car and meet them along the way.
The grass was thick. Carrying the weight of an extra body was no easy task, made even harder by the scrubby wheat trapping and catching at his ankles, threatening to plant him face-first into the ground at every other step. Focus was key.
Dean trudged on in the sweltering heat, sweat plastering his shirt to his back and his hair to his temples, air stagnant and still. Insects brushed past, blowing little pockets of air from their wings- his only source of relief, save for the cooling body he clung to.
Reviews and everything are always wonderful :3
Also, if someone would care to breifly explain the review/pm sysem that'd be GREAT BRO.